Reflections, Observations, and Analyses Pertaining to the Canadian Political Scene

Thursday, January 5, 2017

UPDATE: Outsourcing Has Its Costs

The Toronto Star used to have its own production facilities, but as a cost-cutting measure, last year it outsourced that responsibility. Since then there have been numerous problems with the paper, including sections left out, sections appearing in the midst of other sections, and, one day recently, no paper at all. The worst example of the failure of this new plan was evident in the print edition of January 3 where the following appeared on E1:

So far, I have read no acknowledgement of the offending subheading, either in the Corrections page or anywhere else.

I wonder if the paper is aware of the notion of a 'false economy.'

UPDATE: I brought my concerns to The Star's Public Editor, Kathy English, and this is what she wrote:

Dear Mr. Warwick:

Thank you for your email pointing out this unfortunate production error. It sure hit a chord with our readers and I have spent much of this week communicating with many of them. As well, my Saturday column addresses how this occurred. As you will see if you read it, this matter was not connected to the outsourcing of print production.

It was a somewhat inexplicable human error made by a Star copy editor.

Just about everywhere you look you'll find subtle signs of cost-cutting shabbiness. Trying to chase the profit gap between costs and price leaves both vendor and consumer diminished. It's a race to the bottom, one of many.

.. well mistakes do happen .. I caught one just last week on Twitter from the tragic-komedy Kellie & Kouvalis Inc. I know its a lot to expect of those two but getting the spelling of Canadian wrong & then failing to review a simple 140 character whine inviting us to visit her precious website seems pretty weak. Of course the best excuse for these kind of failures is blaming it on an inexperienced intern or temporary foreign worker.. or a computer done it.. !